Character actor Abe Vigoda, whose leathery, sad-eyed face made him ideal for playing the over-the-hill detective Phil Fish in the 1970s TV series "Barney Miller" and the doomed Mafia soldier in "The Godfather," died Tuesday at age 94.

When two movies are released at about the same time on the same subject, the topic is often something silly and big and spectacle-filled, like "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact" or "White House Down" and "Olympus Has Fallen."